Beer
by MaraYeelzor
Summary: Beer with John Sheppard or overtime spent reading reports?  Atlantis's intelligence head faces a tough choice.


Intelligence reports on alien planets were not nearly as exciting as one would think. It was more par for the course, as much as it could be in another galaxy. When she had accepted the position, and even after she had first arrived, Agent Alice Daniels had no idea that such a position could have such...lulls. Between the Wraith, the Replicators, the Goa'uld, the Ori, and the dozens, hell, hundreds of other threats lurking in the stars between the Milky Way and Pegasus she had expected more of a constant adrenaline rush when she had agreed to go from an Allied Intelligence Forces liaison to the SGC to the head of intelligence on Atlantis. Instead the only reason she barely slept these days was because she was bombarded with paperwork.

With a groan, Alice closed the file she had been studying for the past hour and opened the next one, a fifty page report on Genii activity from an agent they had planted within their ranks back when she had first arrived.

When an errant strand of hair obscured her vision for the umpteenth time that night, she stood up and crossed the room to her bag to get a hair clip. Her bag being at the back of the room, she did not see Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard enter the room and consequently jumped out of her skin when she turned around to see him there staring at her.

"Colonel Sheppard...," she greeted him, bracing herself for disaster as she usually only saw him when something bad was going on.

"How you doin'?" he asked, more than a little ill-at-ease if his pained expression was anything to go by. But rather than answering, she kept staring back at him, waiting for the other shoe to drop. "You bored?"

Alice blinked a few times, and defaulted to sarcasm with her reply. "Yeah, these reports aren't important at all." His only response was to nod and step farther into the room. "Are _you_ bored?" she asked with a smile.

Simultaneously he nodded and replied, "no."

A loud laugh bubbled its way out of her throat and she worried her lower lip between her teeth. "I take it everyone else was busy? Teyla, Ronon, Dr. McKay?" At least he had the decency to look mildly guilty when she called him out. "It's okay, I get that I'm not first on your list. I doubt we've said two words to each other outside of a briefing."

The wince on his face as he stepped forward again was more than enough to make her start laughing again. "Look," he began, "I didn't just come here because I thought you were the last person on Atlantis who might be available."

"Yeah, you could have headed down to the tech lab, maybe grabbed Dr Allen for a beer," she suggested, barely able to hide her smirk. While Dr Allen was nice, he had a tendency to be rather annoying and she had noted him grating on Sheppard's nerves on more than one occasion.

"Speaking of beer..."

"Nice dodge."

"Thank you." He shoved his hands into his pockets and stared her down. "So, do you want to go grab a beer or not?" the Colonel eventually asked.

If she were honest, which was rare, she did really want to go with him. The idea of spending her night alone in her office, reading reports, did not really appeal to her at this point. After all, her shift had ended nearly four hours prior and none of the reports were red-flagged for her attention. Maybe there was something truthful in her sarcasm. A glance down at her tablet reminded her that she was in the midst of one of the reports and something in her just would not let her leave it be. "I'll tell you what: you keep me company while I finish this last report and when I'm done, I'm all yours."

Sheppard's grin threatened to split his face in two if he were not careful. "Deal!" he agreed, a triumphant tone in his voice.

Alice wondered just how long he had been looking for someone to keep him company that the idea of spending the evening with someone he barely knew excited him so much. With a shake of her head, she gestured for him to sit down in one of the other chairs then went to work reading her final report of the night.

* * *

><p>Sheppard looked up from his magazine at Daniels, who was hopefully almost finished reading her report. It had been nearly half an hour since she had agreed to a beer and to say he was getting restless at this point would be an understatement. When she caught him looking at her impatiently, she offered an amused smile. Of course she would think this was funny.<p>

Why did he think it was a good idea to bother the woman when they had barely spoken outside of a few briefings, updating either himself or one of the other senior staff on the status of the intelligence agents off-world? Sure, she seemed like a nice person, maybe she was even fun to hang out with, but pestering her to entertain him when he hardly knew her seemed a bit...well, like a bad idea, in retrospect.

The amusement in her eyes sparkled at him again, and she put down her tablet. "Okay, let's go."

"Done?"

"Not even close," she snorted. "But you're bored out of your skull. And I did promise you a beer. And my shift was over," she glanced at the clock on her wall, "longer ago than I care to admit." Her features twisted into a grimace. "So, beer." The grimace faded into the biggest grin Sheppard had ever seen and he could not help but return it.

"Beer," he agreed, offering her the crook of his arm.


End file.
